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Pillar

The Human Person

The first pillar of a decent society is respect for the human person, which recognizes that all individual human beings have dignity simply because of the kind of being they are: animals whose rational faculties allow them to know, love, reason, and communicate. It also recognizes that human beings are persons, members of the human family who flourish in a community that respects their fundamental rights and who long to discover transcendent truths about the nature of reality.

Q&A: Be Not Conformed—Girard and the Problem of Desire in a Postsecular Age

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A Tale of Two Sams: You Should Not Actively Euthanize Your Baby

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Philosopher Gary Comstock reports that, in hindsight, he would have actively euthanized his terminally ill son. I’ve known his anguish; my son, also named Sam, was also diagnosed with trisomy 18. He took his final breaths five hours after his birth, as I held him in my arms. But I reject the remedy Comstock offers as a solution to this suffering.

The Constitution Already Prohibits Abortion: An Originalist Case for Prenatal Personhood

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Justice Antonin Scalia, an originalist, famously held that the Constitution neither permits nor prohibits abortion. On the contrary, unborn babies are “persons” within the original public meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment, and they are consequently owed due process and equal protection on constitutional grounds.

Anencephalic Children and Zombies

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Children with anencephaly are still human beings deserving of our respect. To appreciate why this is so, it is helpful to consider a thought experiment from science fiction.

The Sufis: Islam’s Anti-Terrorists

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Westerners tend to think Islam’s recent trajectory is one of resurgent Wahhabi-inspired extremism, but growing numbers of Muslims are adopting Sufi practices that promote peace, hope, and harmony among religions.

Parental and Governmental Authority in Medical Decisions: The Tragic Case of Charlie Gard

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By preventing Charlie Gard from receiving further medical treatment, the United Kingdom is exceeding its legitimate authority, and violating the right of Connie Yates and Chris Gard to make an intimate and important family decision about how best to care for their sick child.

Cakes and Consciences: The Case of Jack Phillips and Masterpiece Cakeshop

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The Supreme Court recently agreed to hear the case of Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, who declined to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding reception. There is no need to coerce artists to employ their abilities in ways contrary to their religious beliefs.

Separating the Inseparable: Technology’s Sexual Nihilism

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The sad irony of contraception’s desire to cling to sex without its procreative consequences is that in its separating of the unitive from the procreative, both union and procreation have been removed from sex itself, rendering the act empty and meaningless.

Physicians Without Chests: On the Call to End Conscientious Objection in Medicine

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An article recently published in a prestigious medical journal argues that conscientious objection should be eliminated from the practice of medicine. The argument is unsound, its conclusion dangerous and inhumane.

Forget Not the Body: Reflections on Artificial Wombs

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Thinking about artificial wombs helps clarify the moral significance of the bodily and the biological—in particular, the significance of pregnancy and maternity.

Stuck in a Dangerous Rut: Conservative Discourse and Islam

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If conservatives want to seriously help address issues related to Islam, the Muslim world, and encounters with the West, they need to escape their narrow information networks.

A Life Well Spent: Learning from John Noonan

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With the recent passing of Judge John T. Noonan, Jr., Americans would do well to honor and remember his example of respectful engagement over fundamental moral issues.

A Christian Abortion Doctor? On the Ignorance, Arrogance, and Violence of the Pro-Choice Cause

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Willie Parker’s new memoir displays the characteristic ignorance, arrogance, and violence of the pro-choice worldview.

The Genius of the Mexico City Policy and the Pro-Life Legacy of President Trump

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President Trump has an opportunity to forge a remarkable legacy as a pro-life president. To do that, he must continue to update, reinforce, and apply the principles underlying the Mexico City Policy in a way that is consistent with Ronald Reagan’s original vision.

The Embryo Orphanage: A Cautionary Tale

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As long as complicit bystanders refrain from voicing dissent, embryo destruction will continue to masquerade as a practical, commonplace business, rather than the social cancer it truly is.

Physician-Assisted Suicide Tells People Like Me That Our Lives Are No Longer Worth Living

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The legalization of physician-assisted suicide sends the message that it is better to be dead than disabled. Do I lack dignity because I lack physical independence?

The In Vitro Catch-22

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Is “pro-life IVF” necessarily an oxymoron?

Trading on the Female Body: Surrogacy, Exploitation, and Collusion by the US Government

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Commercial surrogacy is the ultimate manifestation of the American neoliberal project of capitalist commodification of human life to create profit and fulfill the narcissistic desires of an entitled elite.

Fertility Awareness-Based Family Planning: Good for Both Body and Soul

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Fertility-awareness based methods of family planning are not only safe, economical, and effective. They also empower women and couples to understand, respect, and work with their bodies.

The Demise of Language and the Rise of Cloning

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On both sides of the Atlantic, human cloning for pregnancy has been stealthily gaining ground in the last few years, in part due to cultural perceptions and words that obscure reality.

Autonomy, Assisted Suicide, and Neil Gorsuch

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Neil Gorsuch’s book on assisted suicide highlights the danger of judges who rely on the legal and philosophical principle of radical autonomy to legislate from the bench.

Advice for Judge Gorsuch If Asked About Abortion

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The pro-choice worldview is a tangled mess of inconsistent ideas.

Abortion Stops a Beating Heart: The Heartbeat Protection Act of 2017

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Recent scientific advances, popular opinion, and universal moral standards agree: abortion should not be allowed to stop a child’s beating heart.

Trump, Hamilton, and Pro-Choice Dog Parades

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Even the deepest hypocrisies can’t change the fact that we are designed for love.

Remembering Jane Roe and Mary Doe: The Courage of Norma McCorvey and Sandra Cano

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The shameful and irrational desire on the part of the Courts to reach decisions in Roe and Doe with no evidence—and without even knowing if the women in whose names the cases were brought actually wanted abortions—was later exposed by the courage of these two women.
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